Dragonkin
by PinkRangerV
Summary: Tommy is a dragon. Dino Thunder goes a little differently.
1. Chapter 1

A\N: This is inspired by liron-aria's story Legacy, in which Tommy is called 'dragonkin'. To me, 'dragonkin' means, well, an otherkin-someone who doesn't identify as human but identifies as a dragon\whatever. So that's what I wrote (and, in a world with magic, it turned into Tommy _being_ a dragon). For any actual dragonkin out there, I'm sorry if this doesn't read right; I'm a faekin myself, not dragonkin, although I did try to find what I could. Enjoy!

* * *

When Hayley found him, she stopped dead.

It was the first time she'd ever seen Tommy's dragon form (true form). She knew, of course. He'd spilled his secrets to her more than once. She knew he'd been born human, but something in him was also _dragon_ , and Rita had shown him how to work a shapeshifting spell, hoping he would use his dragon form against the Rangers. She knew he had. That the act of using it against them had led him to almost forswear magic until Zordon's death had triggered a transformation, and Tommy had realized that if the _Z-wave_ hadn't 'cured' it, it probably wasn't evil. Tommy had refrained from mentioning that he'd spent almost a week as a dragon after that, finally able to feel the pure joy of his true body, but Hayley had gathered the implication anyway.

But she'd never seen it. Tommy was too shy to show her.

Now, after Anton Mercer's island had exploded, Tommy was hiding in the woods near their university, in the shape of a dragon and with precious gemstones curled in a taloned fist.

Dragon and woman watched each other for a long minute. Then, slowly, Hayley approached him. Tommy reached out with his wings, curling one around her and pulling her closer. Hayley heard…something, from him, and she knew dragons communicated telepathically, but she didn't understand the thoughts he projected. A cave full of treasure; a sense of preciousness; love, fierce as only a dragon could make it.

Hayley laid her hand on Tommy's side. Tommy sighed and closed his eyes. _**Stay**_. He asked.

Hayley nodded and gently leaned against him. Tommy's wing curled even more around her, and she was surrounded by heat and scale and leathery wing. It was surprisingly comfortable.

They stayed together, Hayley curled against Tommy and the precious Dino Gems curled in his fist, until the sun began to set. Hayley yawned and Tommy blinked, then dropped the Gems and began to shapeshift down. "Hayley, I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were tired—"

Hayley waved him off. "I'm fine. You okay?"

Tommy looked at the Dino Gems for a long minute. "My brain says 'hoard'." He confessed. "But…not entirely. Like they're only part of what I'm looking for."

Hayley frowned. "I thought you only kept fossils."

"Information." Tommy told her. "Anything with potential for discovery. But this doesn't feel that way." He paused. "It feels like you."

Hayley considered that. Tommy joked that Hayley was his princess sometimes. It went deeper than that, Hayley knew, but Tommy didn't have the words for it. Hayley didn't either. "More people. The Gems are looking for Rangers, maybe that's who you're sensing."

Tommy nodded slowly. "Maybe I can protect them. Keep this from happening until after they're eighteen."

It was false hope, Hayley knew. The Power chose teenagers so that it could use puberty to alter their bodies, making them stronger and faster than the average human. It wasn't likely to just delay a fight until its chosen warriors were of legal age. But she nodded anyway. "Maybe."

They walked back to their dorms together.


	2. Chapter 2

A\N: There is mention of emotional abuse from here on forward, and in later chapters the aftermath is dealt with.

* * *

 _There._

A girl with dirty-blonde hair, in yellow and black clothes.

 _There._

A boy in blue, messing around on a laptop.

 _There—almost? What? Gone, but THERE!_

The empty seat the students said belonged to Conner McKnight.

It was like being buffered by a strong gust of wind at every flare of instinct. Tommy almost faltered as he spoke, too distracted to think clearly, only endless practice at delivering a lecture keeping him afloat. He kept seeing the three students throughout the day, too. Moving between classes, at lunchtime…

 _THERE!_

By the time Tommy saw them in detention, he was torn between disappointed and wanting to dance with joy at getting to figure out why, exactly, they were so…

Three. One in red, one in yellow, one in blue.

The word Tommy thought belonged entirely to an alien language Rita had taught him, and it was not a nice word.

If these were his new Rangers, he needed to earn their trust. A trip to the museum would do nicely. Something simple, and relatively interesting—they would like seeing the behind-the-scenes things he was looking at. He could establish himself as friendly, trustworthy.

He was assigned to watch them for detention. Perfect.

The drive out was a little awkward at first. Tommy finally asked about soccer, which resulted in uncovering a long-standing school passion arising from, apparently, a misunderstanding about allocation of funds that should have built a football stadium and instead built a soccer field. They also had a long-standing rivalry with Blue Bay Harbor's soccer team. By the time Ethan, Conner, and even Kira were singing the school's soccer team anthem, they'd arrived at the museum.

Which was closed.

Well, it was going well already. Tommy made a quick, risky decision, and told them that if they brought back anything prehistoric, he would cancel detention for the week. They would be more likely to seek him out on their own if he wasn't punishing them. They headed happily into the woods, presumably to find some rocks and dirt.

Tommy ended up staring at the name on the sign in horror.

Anton Mercer.

Anton, who had talked him into revealing his dragon-self. Who wanted to use scales, talon clippings, anything he could get his hands on to learn about what Tommy was. Because it was just about science, about the passion of education, the military applications were just to keep the grants flowing, and that's science, Tommy, you have to give the government a reason to back you but the real work, you know what that is, don't you…

Tommy felt the taste of fire at the back of his throat, and tore himself away from the sign with a growl that heralded a dragon about to go to war. And he had no idea why he felt either one. Anton was _alive_. It hurt and he wanted to find Anton and wrap him in a hug and why, why hadn't Anton _contacted_ him? Why had he just…vanished, let Tommy think he was dead?

He looked up and saw that the dinosaur statue was missing.

In fairness to Tommy, he'd been working with the shapeshifting spell for so long that it was second nature to transform. On the other hand, he realized as he was suddenly in his true form and staring down a T-Rex, Hayley was probably going to kill him for doing this around a bunch of security cameras.

Whatever. Fight time. Tommy grinned, opened his jaws, and bit down on the T-Rex's head. Sparks flew, and the taste of metal filled Tommy's mouth. He spat it out. Urgh, that was _not fun_ —wait, what the _hell_ , that was a _robot_ that had something very much resembling a _non-organic brain_ and only two people on Earth had ever developed them, let alone put them in dinosaur-themed things, and one of them was a dragon at the moment while the other—

Tommy let out a bellowing roar of anger and pain.

Mercer. Mercer had done this.

 _Mercer had betrayed him!_

…And there were three kids wandering around in the woods with Mercer's toys running around!

Tommy took a second to shapeshift down to human. The teens only knew Dr. Oliver the Science Teacher; introducing Tommy the Dragon might shatter the trust he'd built with them, and _he needed it_. If they were going to be Rangers, they needed to trust Tommy, or they would end up alone and manipulated by the bad guy. Trust built effective teams. Trust, and ignoring the agony like fire in his veins, the way his brain wanted nothing more than to know _why_.

When he reached the teens, there was absolutely nothing of Mercer's around, but there was a definite glow of magic in their pockets.

Tommy took a closer look.

He thought another word Rita had taught him. It was worse than the first one.

By the time Tommy had hashed out the basic details with them, Tommy pretty much assumed their parents were going to form a mob and hunt him down. That was fine. They needed to hear this.

The teens looked at each other, then Conner asked, "Dude…you're a dragon?"

Tommy grinned, stepped back, and transformed.

Suddenly the feeling was… _there_. That feeling he only felt with Hayley, of a living hoard, that he jokingly referred to as Hayley being his princess. They were his princes and princess too; his living hoard, his new, precious treasures. The Dino Gems had only been half of the equation. The other half had been them.

Tommy came close to the teens, as close as they would let him, and they walked right up to him—or at least Kira did—fascinated by him. Tommy almost purred, settling down and sweeping his wings over them. _Mine. Mine. Mine._

"You're really _warm_ , Dr. O!" Ethan said.

"Yeah, and you look like Ethan." Conner joked. Tommy blinked at that. Ethan? Was he—no. Ethan wasn't a dragon kit. Just scaly, from the Dino Gems. It was a little disappointing.

"Can you fly?" Kira asked.

 ** _Yes._** Tommy told her. **_I could take one of you up at a time, but I think your parents are about to kill me for keeping you out so late._**

A chorus of groans went up. "But Dr. O!" Ethan protested. "This is so cool!"

 _Yes. I love you too. My hoard, my living hoard._ Tommy chuckled 'aloud'. **_I'll still be here tomorrow. We can fly then, if you want. And you need to train. The Power enhances your bodies, but if you work a little you'll get even better results._** And he wasn't sending them into battle without every possible advantage they could get.

"Cool." Kira said. There was a bit of awe in her tone.

Tommy—reluctantly—assumed human form again. He resisted the urge to pull the teens into hugs. In human form, it was a little creepy. "Come on. We'd better get you guys home."

"Hey, Dr. O?" Ethan chirped up. "Do you hoard things?"

Tommy shrugged. "Information. Things that can teach us new things. I like fossils a lot." Fossils were touchstones to an ancient past, filled with all sorts of power over time. They were probably the most fun things Tommy had ever played with, magically speaking, and he _was_ a magic-user.

And them. The precious people.

But Tommy didn't really know how to say that, so he let it go.

There were Zords roaming Little Tokyo.

Zords that had been turned, were threatening people, and suddenly Tommy had no choice. Either he gave the teens the morphers, or people died. And Tommy felt the pain of Mercer's betrayal turn into rage as white-hot as a furnace, because these were his _students, his hoard_ , that were going into battle—

He was sending _children_ into _war_. And he had no choice, because Mesegog had gotten hold of their experiments. And there was, really, only one way that could have happened.

Mercer had betrayed the world, and as Tommy watched the children hold their morphers, awed and childlike and young, too young, he felt the wrath of a dragon wronged.

Tommy could not enter battle. It was forbidden. The Treaty of Power had definite rules: Either a planet's natural defenses would abstain from battles of the Power, or the societies of Earth were held to the standards of the Power. Until Tommy could make all people equal under the law, it was either stay out of battle or lose Earth the Power's protection. So he waited by the car, watched and waited and occasionally took out a few Tyrannodrones, because hey, if one or twenty of them attacked him, he was allowed to fight back.

They won. They won and Tommy was torn between roaring with victory and screaming in rage. Instead he reached out his mind to the eager, puppy-like child-minds of the Rangers and sent praise and congratulations.

They jumped down and demorphed, almost dancing around him in the now-blue sky, and Tommy smiled and shepherded them away from the battlefield. He couldn't give them much, but secret identities, technology, guidance—he could give them that.

And what he could do for them, he would.


	3. Chapter 3

The next few weeks were a constant string of newness.

The students, his hoard, were shy at first, unsure of everything, but slowly they grew more and more confident, more and more relaxed. They made messes and broke things and figured out at one point (Tommy blamed Hayley) that Tommy liked rock candy, so they tried to make some and ended up giving Tommy a sugar-ant infestation. They were loud and brash and half the time tripping over their new abilities. They were the most precious parts of Tommy's life.

One afternoon they were playing with the Raptor Riders, Tommy in his true form and lazing in the sun, tired from taking all three on rides on dragonback. Hayley was writing out something on a laptop, enjoying the weekend with them.

Tommy settled down into meditation, expecting to fall fully into the sense of _home_ and _right_ …

… _missing._

Something was…off. Like something that should be there, but wasn't yet. Tommy cranked open an eye and checked the surrounding area. Not a threat. Not…no, it wasn't a threat at all. Just a sense that there was something, some _one_ , missing.

 _Trent_.

It clicked slowly, because there was no Dino Gem. Well, there _was_ —the Black Dino Gem—but Tommy hadn't been able to find it yet. But Trent had somehow fallen into the same category as the others, and Tommy barely knew him. He just fit in place, like a puzzle piece slotting between others.

Tommy suppressed a growl. The Power was trying to risk another child.

Well, good luck with that. Tommy had learned from his mistakes last time. There would be no more child Rangers. Not if he had anything to say about it.

He got the distinct feeling of something laughing at him as he decided that. But he ignored it.

Apparently, Mercer hadn't told Mesegog about Tommy's dragon form. That made Tommy's life much easier. When the Tyrannodrones hauled him through the invisiportal, he landed, shapeshifted, and took a minute to have a snack.

He changed his mind after the first bite and just squished them under his feet instead. Tyrannodrones tasted _nasty_. _Note to self: Go hunt a deer or something to get the taste out of mouth._

Squish squish squish went the Tyrannodrones, and when a wave came out, Tommy breathed a mighty wall of fire. He wasn't a particularly big dragon, still small enough to fit indoors if he _really_ tried and worked a little magic besides, but he could breathe fire with the best of them. The Tyrannodrones—at least, the ones who weren't fried to a crisp—turned tail and ran.

…There was something inside that complex, Tommy realized suddenly. Something pulling and calling, glowing with magic. Tommy took another, more careful look.

The Black Dino Gem. Nearly ready to find Trent.

Tommy growled.

He shapeshifted down to human. Getting into the compound was easy; it had, at one point, been the laboratories where Tommy and Anton headed teams of research scientists. And once Tommy felt like getting out, he could just shapeshift back…well, on second thought, maybe better not to try shapeshifting through the steel beams that were part of most buildings now. But he could get out fairly easily in human form, or at least he assumed so.

He ducked and cast a spell of invisibility when he saw Elsa. She walked right past him, although a few Tyrannodrones paused.

Tommy let out a low growl, too low to hear with human ears. The Tyrannodrones turned and left.

Tommy grinned and moved forward.

He gave in to the temptation to play 'who's knocking on your helmet' with Zeltrax, but after a few minutes the pull of the Black Dino Gem reminded him of what he was doing there. He left the cyborg wildly scanning his surroundings, and headed deeper into the complex.

Mesegog and the Black Dino Gem were in the same room.

Tommy grinned and let go of the spell. "Hey Mesegog. Miss me?"

Mesegog roared and sent out a psi-beam. Tommy shapeshifted and breathed fire. Mesegog dodged, and Tommy reached out to the Black Dino Gem's casing, hefted it in his jaws, and bit down. The casing cracked with a noise that made Mesegog wince.

Tommy spat the pieces out and dropped down to human form, grabbing the Dino Gem with a bare hand. No more child soldiers. No more children doing what a dragon should be.

And, miracle of miracles, it bonded.

Tommy let out a joyful roar, then slapped the gemstone into the morpher he'd been wearing (what, it was an effective mode of transportation) and morphed. The suit was confining, it always was, and there was no room to shapeshift…but on the other hand, he currently had access to a magical suit, and the Big Bad of the day was standing in front of him.

"Thissss willnot…sssave you." Mesegog hissed.

Tommy _grinned_ , then attacked.

Around the second major hit, he realized this was actually not his best idea. He needed to demorph and go dragon again, but Elsa and Zeltrax had showed up and the teens were on the viewscreen. Well, he might as well give the teens a good show. He jumped for an invisiportal and ended up in the hallway outside of the main lab.

 _…What,_ exactly _, was the point of that invisiportal…never mind_. Tommy started running. He hit another invisiportal and jumped. This time, he landed on rock and felt wind on his face.

Tommy let out a cackle, then shapeshifted.

He _felt_ the teens' shock and surprise, but then he glanced down and groaned. The Dino Gem was replacing one scale in his wrist, and all of his scales had turned black. Tommy could feel the Power treating his shapeshifting like just another morph, and he was going to kill the Power, really he was.

 _Enemy!_

Tommy lashed out with his spiked tail. Zeltrax went flying, and Tommy chuckled. **_Okay. Playtime, Rangers. Who wants to have some fun?_**

The teens cheered in a way normally associated with large unruly mobs. Tommy grinned and attacked, diving headfirst into a batch of Tyrannodrones. He batted at them with his head, tossing them from side to side; when that got boring, he let out a burst of flame. Zeltrax, Elsa, and some random monster were fighting the teens; they, encouraged by their mentor's exuberance, were doing perfectly well.

Tommy still leaned over Zeltrax and snorted, just to watch him jump straight into Kira's blaster shot. If Zeltrax wanted a rivalry, Tommy wasn't complaining. More fun for him.

Kira burst out laughing, then let out a PteraScream to knock Zeltrax down again.

When the monster got blown up, Zeltrax and Elsa retreated, with a parting shot that they 'were not afraid of your _science teacher_!'. Tommy gave them a little wave with a claw. They ran like the scared little rabbits they were.

Then three Rangers were glomping their newest teammate, and Tommy laughed, curling his wing over them.

They were safe.

Tommy watched as the teens, plus Trent, played soccer after school. Technically, he was supervising. Less technically, it was soccer-tag, and he'd gotten kicked out of the game after it became clear he could get any one of the teens.

Randall came up beside Tommy and snorted. "They kick you out, Dr. Oliver?"

Tommy glanced up. "Yeah." He admitted sheepishly. "Apparently I 'puppy-guard'."

Randall snorted. "Kids. Little terrors, the lot of them." She hesitated, then glanced at Trent. For a second, it looked as if she were about to say something—like that moment in the hallway, after the dig, Tommy remembered—and then she shook her head. "Enjoy yourself." She snapped out, stalking away.

Tommy glanced suspiciously at her, through the eyes of a dragon.

She _radiated_ corrupt energy.

Tommy blinked and almost jumped out of his seat. What the hell? Corruption was something innate to a few people, but at _that_ level? That was what Tommy would expect of a general or low-level villain—

Oh. _Crap_.

Tommy eyed the teens again. Why was _Elsa_ about to say something wildly out of character when looking at _them_?

Something wasn't quite right here, and Tommy had no idea what.


	4. Chapter 4

Someone was going to die.

Forget the Power. Tommy was going to find whoever had made an evil Ranger and have himself a nice little supervillain snack. Personally, his money was on Elsa; the way the White Dino Gem had been hidden suggested her work. But why would Elsa have given the Dino Gem to _Trent_? And that was who Tommy was betting was under that suit—the body shape was right, the movements were right, the dagger even looked like a pen—

Trent started draining energy from Kira and Ethan.

Tommy didn't bother demorphing before shapeshifting. It didn't matter, the suit vanished anyway, but he reached down and yanked the three teens apart, lifting Trent off his feet and away from the others, sweeping his wing over Kira and Ethan. Trent tried the same trick with Tommy, and discovered that, in fact, dragon scales and skin were impervious to almost any form of energy attack, and that was _before_ the Power enhanced it.

The stricken teens climbed to their feet. They'd been demorphed, but they weren't injured. Tommy made a soft noise of concern.

"We're okay, Dr. O." Ethan said. Kira rubbed her arm.

 ** _Get home. Conner, call the Raptor Riders. I'll take Trent back to the Lair._** Tommy ordered.

"Get _off_ me!" Trent shouted. "Laser arrows!"

They splattered off Tommy's scales harmlessly, and Tommy turned his head and raised an eyebrow, growling a little. Trent tried to stab him. Tommy sighed and resigned himself to dealing with this for a little while.

The other Rangers jumped on the Raptor Riders and headed for Tommy's house. Tommy glanced at Trent. **_So, Trent, want to ride on my back, or in my claw?_**

Trent told Tommy to do something that, even as a dragon, was not anatomically possible.

Tommy sighed and took off.

They were in the middle of testing when, out of the blue, Trent demorphed, going limp in Tommy's grasp. Tommy carefully handed him to Hayley, as quickly as possible so his head didn't snap or something. Hayley caught the unconscious teen and set him against Tommy's side.

Tommy curled a wing around him, sighing. At least Trent was quiet like this. Another Dragon Ranger was amazing, was _wonderful_ —but this kit was currently more like an evil puppy than anything. And the yapping was getting annoying.

Trent blinked awake after a minute, looking around. "…wha?" He managed. "Hayley?"

"That's my name." Hayley agreed, still scanning. "Hold still, I need to run a few more scans."

"I…what happened?" Trent managed, trying to push himself upright. Hayley pushed him back down. It must have registered to Trent that he was laying against scales, because he looked up.

 ** _Hi, Trent._** Tommy said.

"…You sound like Dr. O." Trent said slowly.

 ** _I_ am _Dr. O._** Tommy replied, amused.

Trent tried to process that. Tommy tried not to laugh as he watched. Trent was very clearly out of it, and it was a bit like watching the school stoners try to answer a question. "M'going back to sleep now." Trent finally decided.

 ** _All right._** Tommy agreed. There would be enough time to ask what had happened later. For now, he needed to stay still so Hayley could scan him.

"That Gem is a menace." Hayley finally said. "My scanners can't even read his DNA right! I have no idea what's going on."

 ** _Someone's been experimenting,_** Tommy guessed darkly.

"Experimenting on what?" Trent piped up.

 ** _The gemstone on your wrist. It's called a Dino Gem._** Tommy explained. **_It works with the morpher to let you become the White Dino Ranger._**

Trent considered that. "I'm a Power Ranger?"

"Sort of." Hayley confirmed. "You were acting like a totally different person back there. You attacked the others, almost attacked the city…I think something's messing with that Gem, but I'm not sure what yet."

Trent looked at Hayley's hand, then got up, staggering a little. "Whoa. I feel like I got hit by a truck."

 ** _Close enough,_** Tommy told him. **_That much corrupt energy is knocking your whole system out of balance. You're going to have to be careful for a few days so you don't get sick._**

Trent blinked up at him. "…Sorry, but…Dr. O? You're a dragon…"

Tommy chuckled and shifted down to human. Trent gaped. Tommy clapped him on the shoulder. "Come meet the other Rangers, kit."

"…Do they turn into dragons too?"

"No, but _you_ can." Tommy said with a wide, wicked grin.

"He _what_?" Hayley caught sight of Tommy's face. "Don't you _dare_ teach him that spell, Tommy Oliver. Do. Not. Dare."

Tommy chuckled and led the way back to the Lair.

Mesegog and his generals had secret identities. That was the conclusion Tommy came to after figuring out that Randall and Elsa were the same person. Zeltrax was Smitty; there was just no one else Tommy could imagine being _that_ petty and vindictive. So that only left Mesegog.

Anton Mercer having invisiportals in his office wasn't proof of anything, but either way it didn't look good.

So now that he'd officially put Trent in danger by leaving an invisiportal wide open to be stumbled into (to say nothing of gaslighting Trent when he'd found one), Tommy felt entirely justified in paying him a visit.

Of course, Hayley would have said that the full dragon form wasn't actually necessary, but, well, it was the middle of the night, and it wasn't like Anton had any neighbors to be woken by Tommy growling his name.

Anton almost came flying out of the door.

Tommy grinned. **_Hello, Anton,_** he said in a rough approximation of calmness. **_Want to tell me how your son ended up the White Ranger?_**

Anton paled. "…Tommy, I didn't know."

Tommy roared.

Anton cowered away. "Please! I don't want him to-!" Anton fell silent.

Oh, now _that_ was interesting. **_Don't want_ who _to_ what _?_** Tommy coaxed.

Anton looked even paler than normal. His eyes darted around, like he was looking for a way out. Tommy, in full hunter mode, settled closer to the ground, his tail twitching in anticipation.

Suddenly Anton came to some sort of decision. He looked up at Tommy, meeting his eyes. "Mesegog will find him if he stays here." Anton said. "So make sure he doesn't come back."

 **That's _your solution? Throw him away?_** Tommy demanded.

"I don't have to justify myself to you." Anton snapped. He turned to go inside.

Tommy picked him up by the back of his shirt, bringing him closer. **_Actually,_** Tommy said pleasantly, **_Yes you do. So let's talk about how you're going to handle this. Won't we._**

Anton actually whimpered. It was a surprisingly lovely thing.

(Later that night, when Tommy came home, he almost threw up from the strange _wrongness_ of attacking his old mentor like that. As he stared at the walls of his bathroom, kneeling on the cold floor and clutching reflexively at his stomach, he thought of Trent.

It didn't make everything fine. It just made it suddenly worth fighting himself for.)


	5. Chapter 5

A\N: And now we get to the aftermath of emotional abuse. Please consider your headspace before continuing.

* * *

Things did not instantly go better. For a few weeks, they got worse.

Trent was unable to control his morphs, or even remember what happened when he did. At one point he tried running away until Tommy tracked him down and pointed out that he could either have a dragon follow him everywhere or could settle down and come back. Trent opted to go back. Under protest, because he was terrified of hurting someone, but he still went.

Tommy…dealt with the mess Anton had left.

Trent was devastated. He believed Anton was rejecting him, and to be honest, Anton _was_. It was the same pattern he'd displayed with Tommy—drawing someone in, then acting as if he'd forgotten their existence. In Tommy, it felt like one minute he couldn't live without Anton, even if he'd always felt alone and alienated under Anton's quicksilver moods, then the next minute he wanted to tear Anton apart with his teeth and spit out the flesh as he watched Trent struggle. Trent was quiet, but Tommy heard him crying at night, too proud to ask Tommy for help and in too much pain to keep silent. Tommy saw Trent's moods change like lightning, always careful not to overstep, hungry for approval and praise but afraid when he got it. He wanted to please Anton, Tommy knew, but Anton wasn't the sort of man you pleased. Not easily. Not without scars.

And then they ran into a meteorite that gave everyone alternate personalities.

Tommy shapeshifted into a dragon and got stuck. Kira tried to be fashionable. (Maybe she was? Tommy wasn't incredibly up-to-date on fashion anyways.) Conner let his intelligence shine through, and Ethan worked out like a gym rat. Trent, though, was free of the gem's influence. Nothing in his personality changed; he was just free to morph, and he laughed with delight when he realized it.

Tommy flew him into battle, just to hear him cheer.

Tommy broke the rock into sections, planning on giving Trent a nice small stone to carry in his pocket, maybe tumble it so it could be worn as a necklace, and very suddenly he was human again. A few seconds later Hayley was yelping in his ear about how the White Ranger was out of control again.

Tommy took to the skies in a cry of frustrated anger.

A few days later, they set up a containment field and ended up using it later that same day. It worked, and the White Ranger seemed to figure out fairly quickly that he wasn't going anywhere. He settled for leaning against it, playing with his dagger and looking bored.

Ethan came into the living room, turned the sofa back over, pulled out _The Hobbit_ , and started reading.

"…What are you doing?" Trent asked.

"Reading. You seem like you could use the company." Ethan said. He raised an eyebrow. "Or I could just let Dr. O and Hayley scan you while you sit around being bored."

Trent said nothing.

Ethan dove back into the book, and Trent…did nothing. Just stayed still, and quiet, and Tommy had a feeling he was _listening_.

He demorphed about half an hour earlier than normal.

Tommy dropped the containment field and gathered Trent carefully up, carrying him over to the stairs so he could go sleep it off on his bed. Trent shook Tommy off and stumbled over to the sofa, collapsing on the other end of it and passing out.

Ethan considered Trent, shut the book, and pulled out his handheld video game.

"You did a good job, Ethan." Tommy praised.

Ethan shrugged. "He's my friend. Not his fault this is happening."

It was the best Tommy had felt all week.

Tommy was very, very pissed off.

Mesegog, annoyed that Trent wasn't fighting for him, had used Anton Mercer to call Trent home. And then it turned out that Anton _was Mesegog_ , or rather was shapeshifting into him. A surprise monster attack had been used to distract the Rangers, which would have worked if Tommy weren't a suspicious bastard who occasionally strung thoughts together like 'gee, Anton shows no interest in renewing contact with people he's dropped normally, why would he be interested in recontacting Trent?' and 'hey, this is a really convenient monster, maybe it's a distraction'.

In the fight, a blast had knocked the evil encoding free of Trent's Dino Gem.

 ** _Go fight with the others._** Tommy had ordered.

"But—Dad—"

 ** _Trust me._**

Trent had been torn for a moment, but he'd also been abandoned and betrayed, and he was a dragon, a baby dragon but still a dragon, and that was enough to make him run out and head for his friends.

Tommy shapeshifted.

The battle was a little strange. Tommy was a bit small for a dragon, but that was still large enough so that he had to tear off the roof and jump up onto it to get enough space to move. Mesegog was smaller, but slower, hindered by the fact that he was based off an alligator. Both of them, though, had the claws of a dragon. It was almost getting through Tommy's scales, and that only enraged him more as he tried to grab Mesegog off his back and fling him down. Finally Tommy resorted to flipping down on his back on the ground; landing hurt, but he successfully smashed Mesegog into the ground.

Mesegog staggered upright, and Tommy inhaled to breathe out fire and _kill the damn bastard_.

Mesegog teleported away.

Tommy let loose the flame, because once summoned there was no point containing it. Then he dropped down to human size and set about finding an invisiportal back to the mainland.

He could hunt later.

"Don't hurt Dad."

It had come out of the blue, after the party Hayley had whipped up. Trent and Tommy were watching TV and Trent had just blurted that out.

Tommy blinked at him. "Of cou…" He trailed off. He wasn't…actually sure that was possible. To defeat Mesegog without also killing Anton.

And suddenly he wanted to.

He was so _sick_ of all the angst. The pain and the rage and watching Trent look defeated and hopeless. So sick of knowing that Trent was going through exactly the same thing. So sick of wanting, desperately, for someone who was abusive and fond of gaslighting—Hayley had been very clear on what Anton was—to come and return them to lives that had been ones of alienation and aloneness, because that had been 'normal' for so long.

It would be so much easier if Anton were to die.

But Trent was avoiding Tommy's gaze, stiff and scared, begging him not to hurt his father. "It's not his fault." Trent went on. "Like…like with me, it wasn't…he didn't want to be Mesegog."

"He chose to create Mesegog." Tommy said as gently as he could. "What he did was unsafe and he knew it. If we let Mesegog keep doing what he has been, a lot of people who _didn't_ have a choice are going to die."

Trent shut his eyes. Tommy could see his breath hitching.

"I'll try." Tommy promised. "I'll do everything I can to save him. But it might not be possible, Trent."

"Please." Trent managed, and then he was crying, and Tommy stood and shapeshifted and curled his wings around his kit, this abandoned dragon child. Trent curled into a ball and sobbed, and Tommy kept him close and safe and whispered promises that he would do his best, would try to save Anton.

Eventually Trent stopped crying and rested against Tommy's wings. Tommy shifted down to human and sat next to Trent, and Trent leaned against him. Tommy gently played with his hair, wrapping his arms around Trent instead of wings.

"You don't die too." Trent whispered.

Tommy smiled. "No. Never."

Trent closed his eyes and rested.


	6. Chapter 6

The problem with trying to save Anton was that Tommy had no idea how he'd pulled off the transformation in the first place. It shouldn't have been scientifically possible. Shapeshifting was something that you either were or weren't born with, and humans weren't born with it. A spell might permit a human to change their shape, but it was magic, not science.

And if Anton had used magic, Tommy didn't know how much or what part it had taken in the experiment.

They needed data. Finally Tommy went on a mission alone, making himself invisible and searching Anton's mansion. It looked utterly abandoned, and Tommy felt no sympathy at all for Anton. (Beneath the hate was pain and regret. Maybe if Tommy had done something sooner…)

He found the journals and stole them.

He didn't tell the kids what he'd been doing. He just drank a lot of coffee the next day and watched as they played and trained with the energy of teenagers everywhere.

Maybe it would work. Maybe.

They found out that Anton and Mesegog had separated after they found Elsa. She told them everything she knew, enough so that Tommy was sure she had been under some sort of spell. It was weird, the magic that Mesegog used. More like proto-magic than anything a real mage would work with.

"We've got to rescue Dad." Trent demanded.

"We need a _plan_." Conner told him firmly. Trent glared, but backed down. "What do we know?"

"Just that they're separate." Tommy told them. "Mesegog might destabilize without Anton in him. Or Anton might still be able to shapeshift into Mesegog. I'm not even sure how the initial transformation worked, let alone them separating."

"Well, we can always kill Mesegog now that he's on his own." Kira suggested cheerfully.

"I think I know what to do." Trent said suddenly. "I'll go in there and pretend I want to make a deal—trade our Dino Gems for my dad. He brings my dad out, I get him back, we go home."

Silence fell.

"Okay, that's one thought." Tommy agreed. "But how about we try that with a little backup?"

Everything was in position, thanks to Tommy, Trent, and their respective abilities to remain unseen to the human—or reptilian—eye. Tommy fell back to the forest to wait; he would need the cover.

Tommy waited, and waited, and waited—

His morpher beeped. Showtime.

Tommy murmured the spell this time. He needed a slight alteration, one that Rita had taught him so long ago he was worried he'd forgotten it. As he shapeshifted and got bigger, though, it became fairly clear that he hadn't.

Mesegog's island, meet Godzilla.

Tommy grinned as he lumbered over to the compound. He wasn't actually _Godzilla_ , still a dragon—just a big dragon. _Very_ big. Big enough so he could walk up to the laser and step on it. It made a very satisfying crunch.

Tommy started tearing his way through the compound, in a leisurely fashion. The idea was to drive Mesegog through the portal that was set up with a nice, nasty trap. Trent and Anton were already through; Tommy would only have to follow once he got the signal.

 _"Dr. O, he's here!"_

And there it was. Tommy released the spell and jumped into the compound as he did. It was a disaster, but the invisportal was wide open. Tommy morphed and jumped through.

Mesegog had definitely done _something_ to himself. He looked like he'd gotten even weirder than before, and that was saying something. Tommy shifted into his dragon form, squinting when Mesegog created illusions of himself. Then he exhaled a bit of magic to cancel out the illusions.

Then the fight was on.

Tommy had to give Mesegog this much: When faced with four Rangers and a dragon, he actually seemed to be surviving the encounter. He was quick and strong, and the psi blasts he was using couldn't break into anyone's mind, but they doled out damage like a physical blow.

Tommy was idly considering whether he could bite Mesegog's head off or not—although the taste of Mesegog's prior creations was a definite deciding factor _there_ —when Mesegog suddenly grabbed Trent, tore his helmet off, and shot a psi blast at him.

Trent screamed. It was an unholy, keening sound, something that no human should or maybe even could make.

Tommy ripped Mesegog off, pinned him down, and blasted him with fire.

 ** _You_ dare _touch my kit? You_ DARE _?_**

Mesegog screamed, and Tommy threw him into a wall. Trent rejoined the others, his helmet back on, staggering slightly as he joined his kinetic blasts to the others' weapon combination. Tommy turned and wrapped Trent in a wing, and Trent staggered against it, demorphing.

Tommy picked him gently up and lowered him behind some crates where Elsa and Anton and…Cassidy and Devon? What the _hell_? Tommy decided he didn't care. The others were running up to Trent, shouting his name, and Tommy was already planning the death threats to keep Cassidy from putting this in the school paper—

Mesegog sort of _exploded_ with energy behind them.

Tommy growled.

Something was pricking at the back of his head. Something to do with the Dino Gems, and how they worked, and if they were to send energy to each other and use it to form an attack…

But Conner, bless him, was already doing it.

A huge dragon roared up, a dragon of golden light, and it swallowed Mesegog whole before exploding.

And then it was over, and Mesegog was gone.


	7. Chapter 7

A\N: IRL, abusers apologizing does not happen often or without an ulterior motive behind it. But this is PR world, and PR has happy endings-so here's what one looks like, or at least the start of one. Thanks for reading!

* * *

There was a knock on the door. Tommy opened it. Anton was on the other side. Tommy shut it.

Anton slid his foot into the doorway. "Tommy. Please. I just want to talk to him."

"Really?" Tommy yanked the door open, and for now, he was furious. "Talk? Like when you told him he was insane after he saw the invisiportals? Or when you implied you were dying every time he wanted to have a life of his own? Or whatever the hell you did to make him so scared of someone mad at him he barely ever disagrees with anyone? Is _that_ what you want to do?"

Anton, to his credit, didn't flinch in the face of Tommy's wrath. "I wanted to explain myself. And…apologize. To both of you."

That was new. Tommy was wary of it, but it was new. New enough, and after enough trauma, so that it might be for real. Tommy weighed the abuse Anton had doled out against the love Trent had for his father, however warped it was, and then sighed. "I stay in the room." He warned. "And you try to hurt him, and I kick you out on your ass."

"Of course." Anton agreed.

"Dad?" Trent asked from the hallway. Tommy vaguely wondered how long he'd been there.

"Son." Anton said, smiling carefully, as if he didn't quite remember how to. "I…can I come in?" He looked up at Tommy.

With a minimum of grace, Tommy moved. Then he shut the door.


End file.
